


A Contradiction in Terms

by anonymous_sibyl



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-25
Updated: 2005-08-25
Packaged: 2017-10-04 04:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymous_sibyl/pseuds/anonymous_sibyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's made a career, a lifetime, out of knowing the motivations of others nearly as well as she knows her own, and Lee Adama, her Apollo, Captain of nothing thanks to her and his own stubborn morals, is a puzzle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Contradiction in Terms

**Author's Note:**

> Fugitivefic. Takes place prior to Home.
> 
> This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/). None of the media or characters written about in my fanfiction belong to me and I make no profit from these works.

"Frak!"

"Madame President?"

"Get out." The aide hesitates, opens her mouth as if to speak. Laura ignores her fatigue, and the flash of temper that nearly causes her to slap the wall a second time, then draws herself up. "I said get out. There has yet to come a time when I give you an order and you have the option of whether or not to obey. Get out that door. All of you."

It is an exodus only slightly less dramatic than one-third of the fleet leaving Adama and joining her. Its perfection is marred by the sight of Adama the Younger standing ramrod straight next to the now closed door.

"I said get out."

"I..."

"You what?" He flinches under her voice and she ignores it, just as she's ignored so many other distasteful things she's done on this day. "You what, Captain? You thought you had the authority to disobey my orders?"

"You've never asked me to leave before. I assumed you might..." He looks at the floor, the wall, and the backs of his hands. Anywhere but at her. "Need me. I thought you might need me."

She spits the words at him. "For what?"

"I don't know!" He brings his fist down on the wall and something cracks under the impact. "I don't know why you need me now! I don't know why you'd need me at all!"

She is supposed to answer that. She is supposed to tell him she needs him, stroke his ego, and give him simple tasks to perform, things he can do that demonstrate his value. "I needed you to record that message."

He raises his head so quickly it bumps against the wall. "I... Laura... I couldn't."

"Madame President. And, no. You couldn't. So I did what I had to do and now I am tired and would like to be alone."

There is nothing to watch because he doesn't move, but she watches him nonetheless, keeps her gaze locked to him as she walks toward the cot Zarek's people set up against the side wall, watches him unblinkingly as she lifts first her right foot and pulls off her shoe, then does the same to her left, then, finally, slides the too-warm jacket down her arms.

"I am planning on undressing for sleep, Captain. And I have requested that you leave. I do not need you."

"I know."

"Then why stay?"

"I don't know."

He doesn't know, so he says, and, so, she wants to find out. She's made a career, a lifetime, out of knowing the motivations of others nearly as well as she knows her own, and Lee Adama, her Apollo, Captain of nothing thanks to her and his own stubborn morals, is a puzzle. She does not care for puzzles, nor does she care for the anger he seems to stir in her.

"You don't know," she repeats. "Are you lying to me, Captain?"

"I don't know."

"Come here." He takes a step, then pauses, and she is very tired of playing this game. "I said come here. Is there no order I can give tonight that you find agreeable?"

"I'm not good with orders," he mumbles, a half-smile on his handsome face.

"You're extremely good with orders," she corrects. "Just not with mine. Why is that?"

"You didn't mean it. If you'd meant it, I would have left."

Suddenly this boy knows her better than she knows herself? "You're wrong."

"You said 'come here.'"

"And so far you have not." She frowns at him, standing there, inches away from the wall, trapped in his desire to obey neither of her orders. "What happens if I say 'freeze exactly where you are,' Captain? Do you fall down twitching in your inability to flaunt all my wishes?"

"I don't know."

"Freeze," she says, stepping toward him. "Exactly where you are."

And he does.


End file.
